Setting up Pesky Pill.

Install and sign up.

1. Open the install link from your welcome email on your phone.
   • iPhone: it opens TestFlight, Apple’s app for beta testing. Install TestFlight from the App Store if it asks, tap Accept, then Install. You need iOS 16 or later.
   • Android: sign in to Google Play with the Google account you gave the person who invited you, accept the invitation, then install Pesky Pill from Google Play. You need Android 9 or later.
2. Open Pesky Pill. iPhone: it asks to send you notifications. Tap Allow.
3. Tap Create an account. Enter your email, a password and a family name, then tap Create account. The beta is for adults, 18 or older.
4. Android 13 or later: it asks to send you notifications. Tap Allow. (Android 12 and earlier don’t ask.)

Along the bottom are five tabs: Today, Calendar, Rx, Stats and Settings.

Set your dose times.

5. Go to Settings, then Dose times. Your account starts with Morning. Tap it, set the time you take that dose, and save.
6. Two doses a day, with a QR sheet: tap Add dose time, name it (for example Evening), set its time, and tap Add. With a printed organizer, you can add it while pairing instead (step 10).

Pair a printed Pesky Pill organizer.

Its codes are under the lids, on the compartment floors. If it has two rows, each row is set up on its own: the white row for your morning dose, the black row for your evening dose. Look underneath: each row says MORNING or EVENING. Using your own organizer with a sheet of codes from the app? Skip to Print and place your codes.

7. Go to Today and tap Scan QR code. Allow the camera if it asks.
8. Open any lid on the white row (or your organizer’s only row) and scan the code inside. The app says “This organizer isn’t set up yet”. Tap Set up this organizer.
9. Choose yourself and Morning (or the dose this organizer holds), then tap Pair. Pairing doesn’t record a dose. Tap Done.
10. Two rows only: scan any code on the black row the same way and tap Set up this organizer. Choose yourself and Evening. If Evening isn’t listed, tap Add a dose time, set the time you take it, and tap Add. Then tap Pair, then Done.
11. Go to Settings, then Printed organizers. Your organizer should be there; with two rows, one says Morning and one Evening.

Or print and place your codes.

For your own weekly pill organizer: you print a sheet of QR codes from the app and tape one inside each lid. You need a printer (or a way to print a PDF), scissors and clear tape. Set every dose time first: the sheet has 7 codes for each dose time on your account, one per day.

7. Go to Today and tap Print QR codes. Read “How to use this sheet” at the top, then tap Print.
8. Print at 100% scale, not “fit to page”. No printer nearby? Save the sheet as a PDF from the print screen and print it somewhere else, still at 100%.
9. Cut out each code with its label.
10. Tape each code on the inside of its compartment’s lid: “Morning Mon” goes on the lid of Monday’s morning compartment. Tape around the edges rather than over the code if you can, so it doesn’t shine.
11. Don’t scan one just to try it out: a scan records the dose. Scan your first code when you take your next dose (see Every day, below).

Check this phone can remind you.

12. In Settings, find Reminders on this phone. It should say “Notifications are on”. Tap Send a test notification; it should arrive in a few seconds. If it says “Notifications are off”, tap Open notification settings and turn them on.
13. In the same section:
    • iPhone: if it says “Pause alerts can’t get through a Focus”, tap Open notification settings and turn on Time Sensitive Notifications.
    • Android: if it says “Pause alerts can’t cover the lock screen”, tap Allow full-screen alerts and turn it on for Pesky Pill.
    • Android: if it says “Exact timing is off”, tap Allow exact timing and turn on Alarms & reminders for Pesky Pill.
    • Android: leave your battery settings as they are. Tell the person who invited you if a reminder is late.

Optional.

14. Your medications: go to Rx and tap Add medication. To fill it in from a prescription bottle, tap Scan the bottle and turn the bottle slowly so the camera can read the pharmacy label. Check every field against the bottle before you tap Save.
15. Reminder calls: in Settings, under Phone, enter your mobile number with the country code and tap Send code. Enter the code from the text message and tap Verify. Then, under Reminder calls, turn on Call me if I haven’t scanned, read what you’re agreeing to, and tap Agree. Your welcome email says which number the calls come from; save it in your contacts as Pesky Pill so you know who’s calling.
16. Wording: in Settings, under How should Pesky talk to you?, choose Straightforward (the default) or Cheeky. Only the words change, not when reminders come.

Every day.

17. When you take a dose, open Pesky Pill, tap Scan QR code on Today, and scan the code in that day’s compartment. Today then shows the dose as Taken, and the reminders for that dose stop.

Reminders follow your phone’s time zone, so a 9:00 dose is at 9:00 wherever you are. If you scan a different day’s compartment, the app tells you.